


Forestfire (the ship name Boschlow deserves but not the one it gets apparently)

by 8unicorns



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Am I tagging correctly yet?, Boscha redemption, Can you tell i'm also a rwby fan, Comedy, Drama, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, Requited Love, Requited Pining, Romance, Slow Burn, This is now a serious fic, Willow POV, Work In Progress, background lumity, boschlow, except i hate that ship name, god i'm bad at tagging, hooty is gone, i stan Willow, is there enough angst for this to be considered an angst fic? Prolly not, maybe this is medium burn actually, my first non lumity fic on ao3 and there's still lumity in it, seriously nobody tells me anything, slow burn i guess, so i propose forestfire, tags have changed, what are those episodes, which is the name of the fic, ybos? aow?, 💞💞💞
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8unicorns/pseuds/8unicorns
Summary: as confirmed last night by Dana, Willow works out every morning. so i wrote a fic about that. sort of. basically Willow is thirsty and Boscha looks like a snack. because she also works out. basically buff gals wanting to be buff pals. ok seriously? Willow attends the second to last grudgby match of the season and everyone on the team gets their ankles broken (literally) except Boscha. so Boscha has to eat her pride and ask Willow to be on the team. and then their personalities clash until they don't.This is rated teen bc i cuss in the a/n and i make a sort of morbid joke and i don't want mods to ban me. (does ao3 have mods? better not risk it)Excerpt:"Boscha, in a workout outfit, and posing in a way that really showed off her muscles. Willow bit her lip..."
Relationships: Boscha/Willow Park
Comments: 86
Kudos: 221





	1. Leg day. and pre-game day.

**Author's Note:**

> Like i said this went on way longer than i expected. my outline is 500 words. i wanted something light. and fun. and fluffy. this is something.

Willow was already exhausted and it was only 5am. Today had been leg day, and after what felt like a trillion reps of weighted squats, leg presses, leg extensions, lunges and calf raises Willow had to lay down. Dripping with sweat Willow laid in the grass behind her dads’ house and turned off her work out music. 

Willow wiped her sweating hands on the grass and picked up her scroll. Willow automatically opened up Penstagram before reminding herself that she was trying to spend less time on that app. Willow almost swiped to close the app but something caught her eye.

Boscha, in a workout outfit, and posing in a way that really showed off her muscles. Willow bit her lip her finger hovering over the like button. The caption: ‘Grudgby season pre-workouts go hard! #workout #armday #etc’

Willow scoffed, everyone knew that Mondays were leg day. Willow couldn’t deny, whatever arm workout Boscha was up to really worked. Willow looked at the likes, one thousand already. Willow clicked the like button, what’s one more in the crowd that large. .

WIllow noticed a comment:  
WITCHCHICK128: WOOOOOH! Hexide is going to DOMINATE on the battlefield this friday!  
Willow cocked an eyebrow before realizing it was probably Luz who left that comment using Amity’s scroll.

Willow sighed and closed her scroll. Willow got up a bit disappointed Luz wasn’t there to give her one of Luz’s famous pep talks. Luz occasionally joined Willow for workouts. Willow rolled her shoulders and went inside, intent on taking a long bath to relax her muscles before school.

Boscha’s penstagram feed invaded Willow’s bath. Willow couldn’t stop thinking about Boscha, it was quite annoying. Willow had long been a fan of grudgby while attending hexide she’s never missed a game. Willow enjoyed the plays, the magic, the community sure. There was something else that caught Willow’s attention too. The players. The sweat, the uniforms, the running. Willow didn’t care who was on the field, no with all those factors combined anyone looked great.

Willow giggled when she remembered how Amity herself realized just how attractive those things could be in front of her a few weeks ago. Amity the former captain of the grudgby team. Amity, her former friend. Amit was the one who got Willow into grudgby, but that hobby had persisted long after the friendship had ended.

The player Willow had probably seen the most of was Boscha. She was a seriously impressive player if a bit lacking in teamwork. Boscha didn’t need teamwork, she had great field awareness, and powerful and versatile magic. Her favorite spell, fire, always kept her opponents on their feet. The heat made their palms sweaty which made it more difficult for them to hold the ball. Boscha’s signature trick of lighting up the ball also made it easier to distract the opponents. In a dire situation Boscha could throw a fireball that’s not the official grudgby ball and trick opponents into believing her team has the ball. Distracting the opponent’s protectors when the opponents are running the field makes it easier to recover the ball. It’s really genius. Willow may think Boscha is a snooty witch, Willow may even think that Boscha is a poor grudgby captain, but her pure tactical brilliance is unquestionable.

WIllow got up from the tub, began to dry off and get ready for the day. Grudgby on the brain, and the game’s not even until friday. Willow laughed to herself, Boscha was making her go crazy. Even though the game wasn’t until friday, Willow couldn’t help thinking about the plays, the tactics, the scores, yes even the cute uniforms. Willow rolled her eyes at herself in the mirror, she really was some sort of crazy masochist. 

Willow glanced at the time, though it was a bit early she had nothing else to do but go to school. Willow began leisurely strolling towards Hexide, in the past she dreaded going to school but since switching to the plant track, she enjoyed her classes, and her time at Hexide much more. In fact, since she was going to school early she might be able to put in some work on her extra credit assignment.

Willow arrived at Hexide just as the school was touching down from it’s night sleeping in the air. Willow arrives before the plant’s teacher, which was fine since she could work just as easily in the hallway, and she could catch her friends as they walked into school. Willow sat down in the hallway against the wall and began to work, summoning her plant project and experimenting with different spell circles.

Students trickled in over the next twenty minutes and Willow kindly smiled and greeted them all. One student, a recent multi track student in the plants track stopped to say hello. Since they were both in the plants track Willow took the time to explain just what she was doing. To Willow’s delight the boy, Jerbo, seemed quite interested. Willow, excited to have someone to nerd out about plants with, gave increasingly elaborate demonstrations. Willow, oblivious to the crowd she was gathering showed off some autonomous moving plant-life to Jerbo. (an idea that she’d come up with after talking to Luz about earth plants and venus fly-traps)

Out of nowhere a student shoved Willow, but Willow, being as sturdy as she did, didn’t topple or really move much. Willow looked up from her work and into the three eyes of Boscha. Willow’s heart dropped into her stomach, it probably would’ve been easier if she’d just fallen over and made way for Boscha. Bocha’s eyebrows leapt up, probably as surprised as Willow was that the plant track witch didn’t fall over.

Willow cleared her throat and tried to act normal. “H-hey Boscha! Sorry about that i didn’t see you coming”

Boscha didn’t even dignify that with a response. Instead Boscha’s eyes flared and she loomed over Willow. There was a time where Willow would’ve cowered but today she didn’t feel like acting scared of the Grudgby team captain.

That really ticked off Boscha.

Boscha scoffed. “Do you want another Grudgby match half-witch?” Boscha challenged.

Willow looked around the hallway as if to say, ‘are you talking to me?’. Willow shrugged. “That’s very Luz of you, challenging me out of nowhere, but I must decline,” Willow said, going a bit more polite than was strictly necessary, as she was prone to do when very nervous. Willow was glad Luz wasn’t there to convince her otherwise. “But good luck on your game this Friday! We’ll all be rooting for you!” Willow added to smooth the tension.

This seemed to satisfy Boscha, she tossed her hair and walked off. Willow watched her leave and couldn’t help but think if she had to get bullied by Boscha, she should at least have the courtesy to do it in her Grudgby uniform so Willow could admire her properly.

Boscha had scared off Willows audience, and jerbo too by the looks of it. Willow sat down and worked on her Plants extra credit project. Willow was looking forward to that weekend’s Grudgby game though if someone had asked she couldn’t tell them why.

It was Friday night and Willow had seldom had such fun. The Grudgby match hadn’t even begun. 

Luz had decided to do something called Tailgating, so she, Amity and Willow had shown up early to the stadium to help set up. It wasn’t much but it was strange. Luz wanted something called a grill set up so she had Amity cast metal bars and summon coal to cook what looked like frozen, slender cylinders of meat. There were cups of apple blood on the table, wooden chairs outside of the stadium and good spirits all around. Luz explained that this was a human custom before major sporting events. When Willow pointed out it wasn’t exactly a major grudgby match just the second to last of the season Luz pulled the trio into a hug and exclaimed that it was a major grudgby match because there was such good company.

Willow felt a little left out. Amity was still in a cast so Luz was pretty doting on the Blight. Willow was also pretty sure Amity had a little something something for the human so that didn’t help matters. But they both seemed to pay quite good attention to Willow, which was sweet.

Luz said that the ‘borgars’ were done and Amity quickly snatched the first one. Luz muttered something about quick grabbers then offered Willow one. Willow glanced at Amity who seemed to be enjoying it so she accepted it graciously. Willow tasted the ‘borgar’ and found it quite delectable, it tasted like some sort of exotic bird, with a hint of wood. Luz had told Willow about Woodpeckers back on earth, could this strange meat be woodpeckers.

Luz looked skeptically at her cooking, she poked and prodded it gently. After finishing her own borgar and growing tired of Luz’s reluctance to eat it Amity herself asks for it. Luz replied you earned it and gave her the borgar. This piqued Willow’s interest.

“Why don’t you want it Luz?” Willow asked as tenderly as possible.

Luz shrugged, slightly green she said “i think i’m going vegetarian” 

Amity thought this was particularly funny but this shocked and horrified Willow, she could never even think of eating her babies.

Willow turned to Amity, “what did Luz mean you earned it?” Willow asked suspiciously.

Amity turned slightly red. “I uhh caught the meat?” she asked more than answered.

“You hunted for this?” willow said in amazement.

“Technically?” Amity responded.

Luz nodded slightly horrified.

Willow could tell something weird was going on. “How did you?” Willow thought of a question. “Get it so circular?” she finished.

Amity shrugged. “It came that way”

Luz nodded again, still just as horrified. As if she were reliving some sort of traumatic memory.

Willow turned to Luz still confused.

Luz gulped and whispered. “it is-was i guess hooty”

Willow’s eyes went wide. “Is he… okay?”

Luz’s eyes went wider. She nodded. “Yes”

Willow put down her borgar. “Oh” was all she could say.

Amity held out her hand and wordlessly Willow passed her the borgar.

Amity enjoyed her third Hooty borgar.


	2. Game Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> okay it happens. the thing i promised in the overall summary happens. the hexide team gets decimated. and only one remains. It's Boscha. Boscha remains. i think this chapter is better than the last. will i go back and edit these? maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so this and the last chapter were supposed to be one. but i got bored of writing on thursday. I legitimately think this chapter is better than chapter one. anyways hope y'all enjoy.  
> Thank you to ffn user Brocki for pointing out i didn't have gus last chapter. that was intentional. i wanted some gal pal time. Gus also had to beg his mom for a ride.

Willow couldn’t wait to get inside and buy some concessions. Luz’s tailgate hadn’t been as successful as she’d hoped. Gus had finally shown up bringing presents for everyone. He gave everyone a set of Hexide colored flags for the gang to wave during the match. Gus showed everybody a few basic waves before heading inside. Willow was surprised with how easily they came to Luz. 

“It’s just like pencil spinning tricks” Luz exclaimed.

None of the Witches present knew what she was talking about.   
The four Students were the first in line as the Hexide Stadium opened up. In all of Willow’s years going to games she’d never been the first one there. She was enthusiastic about the sport but wanted to keep a low profile in case anybody important wanted the good seats, but Luz’s enthusiasm was infectious. Willow couldn’t remember ever being as excited for a game as she was for this one. The stadium looked so different empty, a knot formed in Willow's stomach as she and Luz helped Amity up the steps to the stands. Luz murmured something about the stadium not being ay-dee-ay compliant. Whatever that meant.

Willow’s hype built as people trickled into the stands. She made multiple trips to the concession stand. She talked excitedly about plays she was excited to see and plays she hoped Boscha would run with Gus. It had long been their tradition of attending the weekly games. Luz didn’t know enough about grudgby to really be conversed with on the level Willow wanted and Amity….

Well Amity may have shown up to a Grudgby game, but Grudgby seemed to be the last thing on the Witches’ mind.

Willow didn’t mind at all that Luz and Amity had come of course but it was nice to have some semblance of her pre-Luz life remain intact. Though the human had made things much more interesting.

Finally the players took the field. Thanks to the match Willow had played against the team a couple of weeks previously, when Willow waved and shouted ‘good luck’ a few players gave her a thumbs up and yelled back thanks. 

Not Boscha though. Boscha was focused on the game. Willow always liked Boscha best when she was on the field. It wasn’t just the uniform, though that of course helped. Boscha never paid Willow any attention when she was on the field. 

Willow waited with baited breath, with the players on the field, as the ball came up. The ball was released and hexide took an early lead, Boscha scoring a goal from after running the ball for half the field. Willow’s cheers were lost with the rest of the crowds. 

Boscha was smug now, she shot the opposing team a look that made them quite angry. Willow was quite sure that whatever the expression was, she’d seen it before.

Willow took a quick survey of the opposing team. It was difficult to tell but they looked vaguely froglike. Their skin was scaly and light green, they seemed to be quite buff. Well apart from their captain that is. Willow knew that other schools had different tracks, and that they didn’t necessarily line up with the nine main covens but if she had to guess she’d wager that the magic specialities of the team were water and construction power glyphs. Construction glyphs were the standard-go-to for Grudgby players. In fact apart from hexide, most of the high school grudgby teams were made primarily of construction coven intended students. The common justification was that the field hazards made the sport too dangerous for students without wearing power glyphs. 

Before the second ball was served Willow was racing Gus trying to figure out which team had an advantage. Which team was going to win? Gus and Willow had a long running game where they would bet on who would win the match. Hexide had been the best team on the circuit for decades which made Willow reluctant to bet against them, Gus on the other hand was far too eager to bet against Hexide.

Willow didn’t have enough information on the situation to make a bet yet.

But Gus did. “Hexide goes down, we lose by 5-10 points. Nobody finds the smidge. We’re tied at half though” he proclaimed.

Willow looked at her young friend skeptically. “Don’t tell me you’re switching to the oracle track” She said sarcastically.

Gus shook his head. “Their water magic is gonna kill our first main advantage. Plus soaking the field is gonna make it harder for Boscha to find the golden smidge.”

Willow admitted Gus did have a point. “But that’s just Boscha, the rest of the team”

Gus waved his hand. “That’s why we’re tied at half, but the team relies too much on Boscha. In terms of athletic ability it looks like the frogs have the banshees beat.”

So they were frogs? Or that was their school mascot? 

Willow stroked her chin looking for a flaw in Gus’ argument. “I guess” she said hesitantly.

Willow scanned the field and locked eyes with Boscha for a second. Boscha scowled and looked away before Willow could do anything.

The second ball shot up. 

Willow decided to have a little faith. “Aww what the heck you’re on.” Willow said keeping her eyes trained on Boscha.

The ball landed in the opponent’s arms.

Gus clucked knowingly.

A frog ran down the field. Based on the cries of the opposing team’s fans Willow could tell the name of the frog was Katrina. And based on the amount of chanting, the frog was likely the star player. Willow squinted her eyes. 

The Hexide stand roared with cheers even louder than when they scored when the first tackle of the game was made and Katrina went down. Of course Boscha had made the tackle. As the players got up and took positions Willow looked at the ground where Katrina had run the ball, it looked damp. Especially where she got tackled.

Boscha realized it too. Boscha scowled and scorched the ground where she made the tackle. Willow winced as she saw the grass light aflame. 

The game went on. Boscha scored 5 more times, and all other players on the Hexide team scored a total of 3 by half time. But their defense wasn’t perfect. The frogs had scored 6. Katrina had by far made the most strides in terms of moving the ball but hadn’t made a single score.

Willow sat back in her bleacher exhausted. This was more intense than any workout she’d ever done. By now typically either team would have begun to run away with it. Luz went with Gus to the concession stand leaving Willow alone with Amity during the half time break.

Willow was way too into her head about the game and plays to make conversation so Amity broke the ice to try and make conversation.

“You were really into that” Amity paused as if making a decision. “Game” she said.

Willow looked up at Amity. “Sorry?” she asked.

Amity chuckled awkwardly. “No don’t apologize, it’s cool that you’re into it.”

Willow’s cheeks tinged slightly. “Thank you” She said politely.

“Would you ever want to play?” Amity asked.

Willow had thought about it. She really did. After the match, the entire team except Boscha had wanted her to join. Except Boscha. Willow shook her head.

“If the captain wanted me too i would’ve joined a couple weeks ago when we played that match. The other players wanted me to but Boscha didn’t. I wouldn’t want to create tension if I joined.” Willow explained.

Amity nodded thoughtfully.

Willow could tell Amity wanted to say it. Willow was glad Amity hadn’t yet. It was the only thing Amity had said to Willow in weeks that wasn’t i’m sorry. Amity was in a cast and yet she was still apologizing to Willow.

Willow had confided in Luz that she hated being apologized to and she suspected that Luz had shared her preference with the young Blight. Willow didn’t mind that, in fact that was part of the reason she told Luz. Willow knew Luz held sway over Amity’s actions.

Willow sighed. Looked at Amity and smiled, signaling she was open to more conversation.

Amity was obviously grateful for the social cues.

“So how do you know so much about Grudgby” Amity inquired.

Willow chuckled. “You actually got me hooked when i was younger. I just sort of stuck to it.”

Amity stared at Willow awkwardly. “Oh um…”

Willow knew Amity was going to say it. “You know i haven’t missed a game since i started here” Willow interrupted.

Amity stared at her. “Seriously?”

Willow nodded with pride. “Even saw one in the rain.”

Amity shuddered.

“Even when i was-” Amity didn’t finish the sentence.

Willow nodded wordlessly.

Luz and Gus came back, thank the Titan.

It was time for the second half. The ball was served and both captains jumped. Boscha was short.

Willow bit her tongue. She was tempted to yell something about forgetting leg day but then an awful accident occured. Katrina was running the ball down the field, followed by one of her buff teammates. A hexide student attempted to physically block the frog. Katrina jumped over the student and then the Hexide student was hit by the buff frog trailing Katrina. 

The entire audience winced. Katrina scored but the focus was definitely on the injured Hexide player being carried off the field. 

Willow gasped, this was very bad. Boscha was very selective in the players on the team. She didn’t have any substitutes or b rosters. Hexide was going to be forced to field four players against the frog’s five.

Willow could tell Boscha was angry. 

Willow noticed the field. It looked muddy. The hexide students’ had their feet caked in mud. Willow put her head in her hands. The frogs had been dousing the field in water all game and Boscha hadn’t been able to keep up with her fire magic.

The ball went up again and the captains jumped. Boscha gave it her all, lighting the air on fire with her hands to give her extra propulsion. It wasn’t enough.

The frogs had the ball again and Boscha was left feet in the air, the ball already going down the field. 

It didn’t go far before Skara tried to block the frog running the ball, attempting to recover possession. Willow saw the disaster before it happened. Skara should’ve tried to tackle, it would’ve been safer. The from ran straight past Skara’s block, knocking her over. It would’ve been fine if not for her Skara’s foot which had sunk a few inches into the ground and as such was rooted.

The audience Winced again, especially Amity. Willow looked away. She couldn’t bear it. Skara was carried off the field.

Willow turned to her friends, and they all knew what she was going to ask. Wordlessly they began helping Amity down from the stands, not paying attention to the game.

As they reached the lot where Ed and Em were waiting to pick up the blight and take her home on their staffs, people streamed out of the stadium.   
“It’s already over?” Willow asked aloud.

“Maybe they found the smidge” Luz offered.

Willow shook her head. “The mud would’ve made the smidge sink. It’s not alive or anything and it’s golden. So it’s pretty heavy” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boscha couldn’t believe her luck. All four of her weak ass teammates were injured. The last two had gotten injured together. The ref had blown the whistle the game was called off. 

The final score was 9-8.

Hexide had lost.

Boscha had lost.

Boscha looked around at the empty, muddy field.

There was no cheating in Grudgby. But if you could cheat the frogs had just done so. Not only had they won, they essentially kicked Hexide out of the running for the upcoming playoffs. Hexide had secured their place halfway through the season but now that place was in jeopardy. If Hexide couldn’t get a team of at least three to play the last game of the season on friday they’d kiss their playoff seat goodbye. 

They’d kiss their chance at a championship trophy goodbye.

Boscha could kiss her trophy goodbye.

She’d be the first Hexide captain in Hexide history not to make Playoffs.

The first captain in two decades not to win the championship.

She’d be a laughing stock.

That was unacceptable.

Boscha needed a team.

Boscha looked at the field again more upset than before.

She drew a spell circle and set the whole field ablaze before walking off alone. She didn’t care at all for the poor plant coven soul who’d have to nurse the soil and regrow the grass. 

She hoped whoever got assigned that task got skewered by one of the field hazards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excited? you should be! next chapter is in Boscha's POV. Exciting!
> 
> If you're wondering where my other fic is and where an update to something else is the answer is fries.
> 
> Please comment anything you liked and anything you didn't. Give me writing tips etc.


	3. Recovery day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boscha tries to find teammates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind this is Boscha's perspective (except at the very end) so she might say things that aren't true.

Boscha still couldn’t believe it. She recalled so vividly the shocked stares coming from the Banshee bleachers as one after another her teammates dropped like flies. She remembered the smugness radiating from those damn amphibians as they cast water spell after water spell. She remembered the arrogance of Katrina. The way she played the whole game without breaking a sweat, holding back, never fully committing or exerting herself. The entire team used that damn laid back strategy. Yeah, they were hard-hitting trucks of muscle for the most part, but they also were weak. They were pathetic. They were slimy players and their win had been slimy too.

Boscha’s vision had gone red after last night. Her ridiculous mother must’ve thought Boscha was acting unreasonable since she’d been talking to Boscha like a spoiled baby. At least her father had said nothing, but Boscha knew from his dismissive grunts that he was disappointed she’d lost the match.

She hadn’t lost.

Her teammates had lost.

They hadn’t trained hard enough. 

Or they hadn’t tried hard enough.

Or- whatever it didn’t matter.

They didn’t matter. Not to Boscha.

Boshca needed players, and she didn’t have very many options. Amity obviously for her second player, but she needed three. Who else at Hexside even knew how to play Grudgby? Amity would probably know. Boscha had been captain for two years now. Why did she still need Amity’s help? Boscha blew out her cheeks in frustration. She should know everyone in the school who could help.

Boscha went to her mirror and began combing her hair. She had some very important calls to make and she would not let anything diminish people’s opinion of her further. 

Boscha made her morning affirmations. 

“Boscha, you are talented.”  
“You are a star”  
“You may be hated, so long as you are feared.”  
“Most important of all, you are a winner.”

Boscha used to feel silly saying these things to herself in the mirror every morning. But then she started winning Grudgby games. People started loving her. They worked. And besides, it’s not like anybody would ever see her do them.

Boscha flipped over in her bed onto her stomach and pulled out her scroll. She dialed Amity’s number without hesitation, as she had a thousand other times in their friendship. Boscha waited for Amity to pick up. What was taking so long? She knew the Blights. There was no way Amity slept in this late. Amity finally picked up and her face appeared on the screen.

Boscha began talking immediately. 

“I’m sure you heard what happened last night at the grudgby match. Wait, were you there? Nevermind. The point is, I need you to sub in on the team. Just for the next few games, at least. But if you want to stay we can kick one of those weaklings who broke their legs playing to make room for you,” Boscha said speaking quickly.

A moment of silence. Why wasn’t Amity saying anything? What was she looking at off screen? Amity’s expression was always hard to read, but mostly because she didn’t show a lot of emotion. Amity was almost showing too much emotion. Her eyes were wide as if something surprised her, but she was also smiling as if she were pleased. Or amused? 

“I think my capabilities might be limited” Amity said in that annoying habit she has of sounding way too proper.

Boscha rolled her eyes. All three of them. “Whatever we can practice all week. We’ll have you back in tip-top grudgby playing shape.”

Did amity choke back a laugh? What was so funny?

“Didn’t the entire team get wiped out? Who’s going to be your third player?” Amity asked skeptically.

Boscha shrugged. “I was actually hoping you could give me an idea or two?”

Amity placed her hand on her chin. Boscha could see her wrestle with an idea. Boscha was growing more impatient, waiting. 

“You know someone!” Boscha said with relief.

“Yeah have you asked Willow?” amity asked.

“Ask Willow?”

“We did almost beat you in that match a few weeks ago.”

That match a few weeks ago. Boscha felt so stupid. That was probably the worst day of her life. It was humiliating that match was so close. It was infuriating that Amity chose Willow over her. It was isolating that her entire team seemed to think Willow was cool. Boscha hadn’t been witness to her privileged spot in Hexside slip ever so slightly since then. That was unacceptable.

That match a few weeks ago.

Boscha almost hung up the call right then and there. She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid as to actually call Amity. 

But there were still the grudgby matches she needed to win. If she couldn’t get a team together, she could kiss the rest of her social status goodbye. Boscha was sure Amity was having a riot of a time watching her face go through the five stages of loss. 

Boscha looked up with her extra eye. Amity seemed concerned? Whatever.

And Willow, of all people? Amity had a weird sense of humor. Sure, the pair of witches had given Boscha a light jog for her money even with that human dragging them down, but Willow couldn’t seriously be a contender for the third member on the team.

Could she?

Boscha mused over the idea for half a second. Willow was certainly fit and sturdy enough. But no, half-a-witch Willow didn’t have the magical prowess to keep up with her and amity. That’s why she was on the bleachers every Friday and not on the field. Boscha saw her every week judging her plays. Boscha absolutely hated it. Even if it would be nice to show Willow that it wasn’t so easy on the field, Amity wasn’t serious. She had to be kidding.  
Amity may have a crush on the human, but even love couldn’t make you as much as a fool to seriously suggest Willow play on the team. Especially not with Boscha. Boscha had gone out of her way for the past few years to make Willow’s life as difficult as possible.

Boscha’s stomach dropped. Why had she done that again? That seemed like an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Boscha scoffed a little late to be convincing.

“what?”

“I mean we could ask Luz”

Boscha rolled her eyes. Luz couldn’t do magic properly, much less play grudgby. Besides, if Luz and Amity were on the field, they’d probably ignore the other players in favor of kissing each other.

“Not a chance.”

“Fine, then Willow”

“Seriously? Half-a-witch?” Boscha put on a practiced laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

Amity’s face seemed to freeze. Her cool, emotionless expression returned.

“I am serious” 

Boscha hesitated.

“C’mon there’s got to be someone else”

“Ask her or I don’t play”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Fine ok I’ll ask”

Womp womp

As soon as she relented, the line went dead.

Boscha sighed. Was she actually going to ask Willow to play with her on the grudgby team? Boscha didn’t have a lot of other options. And as much as she didn’t want to do it, Willow could be an asset to the team.

Willow was strong. Boscha suspected Willow could’ve been hit by every single one of those damn frogs and not have broken a sweat, much less a bone. In fact, Willow might be the one student at Hexside that could deadlift more than Boscha herself. Well, maybe on one of Boscha’s bad days.

Boscha got out of bed and stretched. She should go on a run to clear her head. That could help.

Boscha put on a workout outfit and headed outside. She began her light jog around her neighborhood in Bonesborough, Willow on the mind.

Willow also probably knew something about Grudgby. She was at every game, even the densest of witches probably could’ve picked up something. And she might have insights into the other teams, which would be helpful when playoffs came around. 

But her magic was still terrible. There was no way Willow could keep up with Boscha. That wasn’t the witch’s fault though, Boscha was a prodigy. Though Willow was getting more powerful. Since changing tracks, Willow seemed slightly more competent. Her plant magic could have potential on the grudgby field.

Boscha had lost track of her whereabouts. She was in a part of her neighborhood she didn’t go to often. She stopped to try to see if she could figure out how to get to more familiar territory and to catch her breath. Boscha saw something large in the yard of one of the nearby houses. She walked up curiously and noticed a few things. There was a hexside flag in the front of the house, planted, surrounded by a small garden. Then there were weights and exercise equipment scattered around the yard. Titan that was a lot of exercise equipment. The last thing she noticed was the first thing she should’ve noticed. Willow was standing, having just come from around the house, a dumbell in one hand and a towel in the other. 

The pair locked eyes. 

Boscha froze. She scowled slightly, unsure of what to do. This wasn’t Hexide. This wasn’t her Turf. This was Willow’s home. 

Willow gave an awkward but friendly wave.

Automatically. Involuntarily. Instinctually. Boscha waved back.

Willow set down her weight and walked toward Boscha, clearly unsure of herself.

Boscha couldn’t do this. This was not a situation she was in control of. So she ran.

That’s what she was out here to do, anyway. She was out to run and clear her head.

She shouldn’t have done that.   
Her facade slipped.  
What was the expression on willow’s face? It seemed pained. Was it pity? Titan, did Willow actually pity her? She would’ve seen the carnage last night. But pity from the plant witch wouldn’t do at all.  
Feared.  
Boscha needed to be Feared if she was hated.  
Willow hated her. How could she not?  
Boscha had made sure that students she deemed unworthy hated and feared her.   
Willow seemed to do neither.   
How was that possible?  
It seemed personal the way Willow let the insults roll over her shoulders.  
Especially recently, she seemed much less afraid of Boscha.  
Willow always seemed so distracted. In some other world. 

Then it was decided. Boscha couldn’t ask Willow to play grudgby. After that interaction? Absolutely not. Boscha would just lie to Amity and say she asked, but Willow didn’t want to come. After all, that’s probably what would’ve happened, anyway.

Boscha arrived at her house exhausted but glad she’d cleared up her life a little. She still needed to find a third teammate, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Her contacts’ list was long enough to where she could just comb through it and find a buff, magically adept, and grudgby inclined Witch. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amity sort of hated Boscha.

She was a selfish, spiteful creature of habit, who only cared about people who could hurt her. She had definitely forgotten the grudgby match over bullying Willow. Boscha had forgotten about their ensuing fight. The second Boscha needed something from Amity, she’d conveniently forgotten every single inconvenient fact and barreled ahead. Boscha had just asked amity to join the Grudgby team, while Amity was sitting on her bed with a broken ankle from the last time she’d played Grudgby. Boscha was the player who inured her for titan’s sake!

Amity sort of liked Boscha. She admired the boldness of the witch, her confidence too. But those weren’t enough saving graces. Going back to grudgby wasn’t about appeasing Boscha though, it was about restoring her friendship with Willow. Amity didn’t care about winning or even playing. As far as she was concerned with a broken leg all she could do was summon an abomination in front of the goal posts. Maybe she’d bring a good book on game day or something. 

That was if Boscha even asked Willow. Knowing that Witch’s pride, it might be the most difficult thing Boscha’s ever done. Then again, knowing that witches’ love of grudgby it might be the easiest.

Amity sighed and hoped her little scheme to help patch things up with Willow worked. Willow had said that if Boscha asked she’d want to play Grudgby. Amity couldn’t spend the rest of her life with people like Boscha.

Amity sort of hated Boscha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay first of all i'm sorry this took me forever to update. like life is hard and it's harder when you procrastinate. second of all i'm sorry i named the fic what i did. if you live on the west coast of america please don't hate me. also apparently a lot of people headcannon Willow as aroace? that's super cool but for obvious reasons that does not work with this fic. i do want to write an aroace willow fic but only if i can find a unique spin on it or something. 
> 
> i wanted to write a boschlow fic. then i started writing this and realized i actually wanted Boscha redemption. this fic should be both. eventually. we'll get there. 
> 
> thank you for all the Kudos and all the comments! they all mean a lot to me! please if you have anything to say don't hesitate!
> 
> i'm gonna go back to Willow's perspective next chapter. Boscha is fun but pretty hard for me to write for i think. tell me if you think i got her wrong or something i'm not super confident in my interpretation. 
> 
> i have lots of ideas for fics but no time and no motivation to write. i want to update AHTAWS next week so hopefully this gets an update the week after that? maybe sooner but i don't want to make a promise i can't keep.
> 
> have a good one! thanks for reading!


	4. Practice Day (Morning)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willow officially becomes part of the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BAM! A CHAPTER!

How annoying. Nobody was going to play grudgby with her. Calling everybody attending Hexside and being told they didn’t want to play Grudgby stung more than Boshca wanted to show. Sure, they all had ‘excuses’, prior engagements or a lack of athletic ability and talent, or whatever. Why couldn’t they see how important this was? Why couldn’t they see that Boscha needed this? that Boscha needed them? The entire student body were snakes.  
  
Her scroll buzzed, and she quickly pulled it from her pocket. Maybe someone who’d changed their mind!  
  
Ugh, just a text from Amity. At least there was someone in school decent enough to help the star athlete in her time of need.  
  
‘Is Willow coming to practice?’  
  
Boscha rolled her eyes. Willow. Boscha seriously doubted the half-witch’s ability to comprehend grudgby, much less play. Even if willow was inexplicably in the stands week after week. But desperate times, she supposed. Playing the match on Friday was the important thing. Eventually she’d have her regular team back. Then she could ditch Willow again and all would be right with the world. Boscha took a deep breath and located the nerd herd.  
  
Boscha didn’t want to do this.  
  
Boscha didn’t plan on doing this.  
  
Boscha had to do this.  
  
‘Most importantly, you are a winner. Most importantly, you are a winner’  
  
Winner.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
“I don’t know, the boiling isles aren’t exactly known for great places to hang out,” Willow said  
  
“You guys don’t have skating rinks or bowling alleys?” Luz asked.  
  
Skating rinks? Bowling alleys? This must be another eccentric human thing. Alleys aren’t a good place for innocent kids, such as themselves, to hang out. Just because their Friday night plans got canceled didn’t mean they had to resort to such desperate measures.  
  
“Or trampoline parks?” Luz continued.  
  
Willow giggled. “The only parks I know of are me and my family” she joked. Willow didn’t know what trampoline parks were. Gus hung on every word Luz said. He took notes every time she let slip some detail of the human realm.  
  
Luz looked stumped as she gripped her chin. “Maybe eating out somewhere?”  
  
“As long as amity isn’t cooking,” Willow said.  
  
She didn’t love making a joke at the absent witches’ expense, but the whole Hooty incident had been mildly traumatizing for all of them. Luz was quick to agree.  
  
Willow felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around an apology to Amity already in her throat. When she turned around, she found a much more unexpected face looking at her.  
  
Boscha.  
  
“Boscha?” Willow asked in a high-pitched voice.  
  
Boscha looked weird. Nervous, if willow had to guess based on her darting eyes and hunched shoulders. But also angry based on her scowl, that at least was typical of the triclops. Boscha also looked worried from her narrowed eyes and clenched fist. When had Willow gotten so good at reading Boscha?  
  
Was this about the unplanned run in they had over the weekend? It was weird that Boscha knew where Willow lived now, but Willow took some comfort because Boscha didn’t seem interested in making her life hell at home. Well, not yet at least. It was strange that Boscha hadn’t even tossed a jeer or something Willow’s way. She’d never, before Saturday, seen Boscha act strange. Her behavior today was just as strange. The malice in her eyes and demeanor that Willow was so familiar with was absent. Replaced by an uncertainty that seemed to restrict Boscha.  
  
Before Willow knew what was happening Luz was in front of her. The human was ferocious and loyal. Luz was tearing into Boscha about bullying and picking on People. then she moved onto something about Boscha having an awful weekend and excuses. Willow tuned out Luz, she felt bad doing it, but Luz wasn’t talking to her. Besides, willow was in a mild shock of not being bullied in Boscha’s presence. She appreciated Luz’s effort, she really did, but Willow could look after herself. Willow also didn’t think Boscha wanted to hurt her that morning. The confrontation collected onlookers from other students in the halls. Willow put a hand on Luz’s shoulder and told her to calm down a little.  
  
“GRGGRGRRGRGRBARKBARKBAKRBARK,” Luz snarled.  
  
What human dialect was that? Luz didn’t seem to hear her, so Willow repeated herself.  
  
“Luz, thanks, but I Can handle myself.”  
  
Luz looked up skeptically. “But-”  
  
Willow smiled in response.  
  
“You heard her, you two scram” Boscha commanded, pointing at Gus and Luz.  
  
Luz looked between the two witches. “Fine, but I’m watching you Boscha” she said, flinging her fingers from her eyes toward Boscha as she and Gus retreated.  
  
“Oh no, I’m so scared” Boscha replied with an eye roll.  
  
Willow faced the three eyed witch expecting something. Was this going to be about that strange interaction on Saturday? Was Boscha really going to bully her or tease her now to make up for it? Willow sure hoped not, but Luz and Gus were still close enough to intervene before something terrible happens. Not that Willow couldn’t defend herself. Maybe Boscha wanted a workout buddy and was going to ask to borrow some weights. That seemed a little hopeful and unlikely.  
  
“Congratulations on making the team. Practices are every day after school. I believe you know when game time is on Fridays,” Boscha said.  
  
Willow’s mouth went dry. Did She hear that right? Boscha was inviting her on the grudgby team? Boscha noticed Willow in the stands? Willow knew much of the team was injured, but so badly they couldn’t make a recovery before Friday? That was news. There wasn’t anyone else that Boscha could get for the team? Willow’s mind was swirling with thoughts and questions. She had to say something before Boscha walked away. She had to get some information. “What?”  
  
“Hexside needs another grudgby player.” Boscha said as if she were talking to a particularly dense child.  
  
“Me?” Willow asked. She hardly qualified as a grudgby player. She’d only played the once, and her debut performance probably didn’t exactly endeared herself to Boscha.  
  
Boscha looked at Willow, the captain’s full attention on the rookie player. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”  
  
“Why would I play grudgby?” Willow asked innocently, hoping to bait some information out of Boscha. Willow knew exactly why she might play grudgby, but she couldn’t let Boscha know that.  
  
“Your school needs you.” Boscha Said, a tone of annoyance, rooming with her other fading emotions.  
  
Yeah, right, Hexside had done little for Willow during her years of attendance.  
  
“I dunno” Willow said. How far could she push Boscha’s buttons? Boscha was a lot more fun when she wasn’t shoving or demeaning People.  
  
Boscha blew some hair out of one of her eyes. “You could- improve- your social standing” she said, her face growing red. Though from embarrassment, anger, or flustration, Willow wasn’t sure yet.  
  
Willow shrugged non-chalantly. “Never really cared about popularity.” Willow said. That was true. If she put any amount of weight behind her social standing, she’d likely grow angrier or sadder than she wanted to be. She had plenty of friends, Luz, Gus and maybe even amity one day soon.  
  
“Just be there.” Boscha said, turning around to end the conversation.  
  
She couldn’t just let the captain leave, Willow was having way too much fun teasing now. “Wait! Do you want me to come to practice?” Willow asked.  
  
“Yeah, obviously.” Boscha said.  
  
Fair enough. That was a dumb question. But sometimes the dumbest things get people’s attention.  
  
“Why didn’t you ask?” Willow asked. Was this playing dumb? It was certainly playing.  
  
“What? Titan, you’re annoying. Okay, whatever. Do you want to be on the grudgby team, Willow?” Boscha said, facing the shorter witch again.  
  
That worked? Should she be feeling guilty about teasing Boscha so relentlessly? It’s not like they were close. “Do you want me to be?” Willow asked.  
  
Boscha rolled her eyes. All three of them. “What? is this a trick question? Yes, of course I do. Why would i be talking to you otherwise?” Boscha asked.  
  
Harsh. “Can you ask me nicely?” Willow said, her feelings hurt. Regardless of any facade she put up around Boscha, Willow was as delicate a soul as her treasured flowers.  
  
“Ask you nicely?” Boscha asked.  
  
“Yeah, y’know, say the p-word and everything,” Willow said with a hopeful smile.  
  
Boscha bared her teeth. “Alright, you want to play grudgby Punk?” she asked.  
  
Willow flinched at Boscha’s tone. “Not that P-word!”  
  
“Peeve?” Boscha tried again  
  
“No!” Willow almost shouted. Did Boscha seriously not know the word please?  
  
“Pariah?” Boscha attempted.  
  
“What no! Please! I meant to say please,” Willow cried with indignation.  
  
“Puh-leese?” Boscha sounded out the word.  
  
“Y’know the word that means you’re being polite.” Willow explained in the politest voice possible. Did Boscha seriously not know the word please?  
  
“No. I don’t.” Boscha said, looking much more embarrassed than she did a few minutes ago.  
  
She really didn’t know then. “That’s okay, I’ll teach it to you, just use it when asking someone to do something.” Willow explained in a politely hushed tone.  
  
“Shut up. You’re annoying. Are you going to practice or not?” Boscha steered the conversation away from the niceties and towards grudgby.  
  
But she was still conversing with Willow. “Shut up, please” Willow corrected Boscha. Was she being annoying? Boscha could cope.  
  
“Titan’s heart, spare my soul” Boscha cursed, turning her eyes towards the sky.  
  
“He might do it if you said please.” Willow pointed out. “Never hurts to be polite”  
  
“Holy shit, you’re annoying. This is why I bully you.” Boscha said sneering.  
  
Willow took a step back and looked downward. That was right. Boscha was a bully. A cruel person. Willow had forgotten. How could she have forgotten? “Ummm” Willow muttered. This had sucked the fun out of it for her.  
  
“Fine, whatever. Willow, will you Puh-leese join the grudgby team?” Boscha said, annoyed and something else. Was it regret? Pity? Sympathy? Willow couldn’t be sure. But it sounded sad.  
  
“Yeah, I’ll be there” WIllow mumbled, her eyes still downcast.  
  
“Practices are fifteen minutes after school on the fields. Don’t be late.” Boscha said.  
  
“Today?” Willow asked instinctually as she ran over her plans for the day.  
  
“Yes, today dumbass,” Boscha said.  
  
“Please don’t call me that?” Willow begged, she didn’t have to put up with that.  
  
“Stop being one.” Boscha replied.  
  
“maybe be a little nicer to me? I am a teammate now,” Willow tried, wishing on her lucky star.  
  
“Whatever. Just be there.” Boscha said.  
  
That wasn’t a no.  
  
Just then the school demon screamed, signaling the start of classes, and all the students shuffled off to class. Willow wasn’t able to catch up to Luz or Gus, and they didn’t share any classes that morning. Willow breathed a sigh of relief, She didn’t have classes with Boscha until just after lunch. Boscha may need something from her, but that didn’t mean they were friends. Though maybe Boscha was right about that social status thing. If Willow could make Boscha respect her grudgby knowledge, and maybe even grudgby skills, Boscha would stop picking on her. That’d be an immense weight off of willow’s back, and a huge credit to Boscha’s status as Willow’s favorite eye candy.  
  
Willow went off to her morning classes, her mind distracted from academics by thoughts of uniforms, sweat and athletic comradery.  
  
***************************************************************************************************************  
  
It was finally lunch hour, and Willow was the first of her friends to make it to the cafeteria. She sits in their usual place and begins eating, watching the door for a friendly face. She needed to tell Luz about her spot on the grudgby team, and not just to iron out Friday’s plans. She needed someone to tell her she wasn’t crazy. Or maybe someone to tell her she was. Really, there was no telling which she was. Come to think of it, there wasn’t much guarantee Luz would be an accurate judge either way.  
  
A friendly face! Willow’s face lit up when she saw amity. It’s been a while since that happened. A slight overreaction, but Willow gave the young blight a polite smile and wave. Amity looked momentarily confused before returning the gesture. She then went to sit with the other crippled Grudgby players. Willow sighed, Amity had been splitting her lunch time between her old friends and her new friends. Looks like today was an old friend’s day. That was fine, Willow suspected that most of the reason Amity ate lunch with her and Gus any day is because of Luz. Which was fine, Willow didn’t want Amity compensating by trying to be overly nice to her.  
  
Just then Willow saw her friend and waved her over. Willow was self-conscious about interrupting Luz’s conversation with an elder multi-track student, but her situation hopefully took some matter of precedence.  
  
When Luz sat down at the table, Willow relayed the events of the morning’s conversation to her friend, though Willow left out the banter-y bits. Willow was having fun watching her friend’s face contour as she told Luz that Boscha had invited her onto the grudgby team.  
  
“So you’re scared to tell her you’re not going to do it?” Luz asked.  
  
Willow shook her head. “No, I want to play!” Willow said.  
  
Willow could see Luz trying to put a positive spin on that fastball.  
  
“But why?” the human asked.  
  
What could Willow say? She couldn’t exactly just say that she wanted a chance to get up close, personal, and sweaty with Boscha. Besides, that wasn’t the only reason. Probably.  
  
“I like Grudgby!” Willow said “I would’ve joined a couple weeks ago if Boscha had asked me then”  
  
Luz looked slightly skeptical. “But she didn’t then”  
  
Willow shrugged. “She almost got beat by a newbie, the former team captain and a human. She was probably feeling self-conscious about her position”  
  
Luz looked raised an eyebrow, something Willow had done many a time in her and amity’s presence over the past few weeks. “That’s awfully charitable” Luz said.  
  
“She’s-” Willow was going to say not that bad, but she knew that was a lie. Willow sighed. “I don’t know it’s complicated. But I do want to try new things. I think I’ll like Grudgby” Willow said, hoping to convert her friend.  
  
Luz nodded. “Oooh yeah, it’ll be good for you! Maybe you can make new friends once the rest of the team heals”  
  
Willow tried not to read too much into that. “Yeah” WIllow said with a smile, pleased her friend was ultimately supportive.  
  
“Hmmm, I think I’ll try something new too!” Luz said.  
  
Willow looked at Luz. “you’re studying nine tracks of magic. What new thing could you possibly do”  
  
“I’m glad you asked! I’m going to cheerlead the games!” Luz said.  
  
“What’s that?” Willow asked.  
  
Luz narrowed her eyes. “Do you really not have cheerleaders?” she asked.  
  
“We really do not have cheerleaders,” Willow said solemnly.  
  
Gus sat down next to them. “Human lore!” he squealed and took out his notebook.  
  
“Ooh, gus! You’ll love this you can be a cheerleader too!” Luz said and explained the whole human institution of cheerleading.  
  
“Don’t you have to know something about Grudgby to do cheers?” Willow interjected. “Sounds like you at least need to know when we’re on offence or on defence.”  
  
Luz gripped her chin and looked around the cafeteria. After a minute she shouted, “Eureka!” and lept in the air.  
  
Willow giggled.  
  
“I’ll just go to the practices with you!” Luz exclaimed. “That way I Can learn your plays and write cheers!”  
  
Willow smiled. She would appreciate her friend’s presence, at least for the first day.  
  
“Wait. What? practice?” Gus asked.  
  
Luz turned to the young witch. “Oh, my goodness Gus, you’re never going to believe what happened” Luz said excitedly. Then the human turned to Willow. “Can I tell him?” she asked.  
  
Willow shrugged, giving the human silent permission.  
  
Luz quickly relayed the events of that morning after she and Gus had moved out of earshot from Boscha and Willow. Willow noticed a few exaggerated details, but she didn’t bother to correct them. Their gossip circle was small.  
  
Willow sighed and tried to get herself psyched up for the rest of the afternoon. General Ed classes meant classes with Luz and Gus, but it also meant classes with Boscha. Willow wasn’t sure she had the mental capacity to deal with Boscha all afternoon and then again at practice.  
  
Willow wanted to play grudgby. Or at least try to. She had such fun in her first match; she knew so much from a lifetime of watching. Besides, she could totally break out of her shell! No problem at all. Willow mentally steeled herself on the way to history. Maybe if she proved to Boscha that she was worth her salt, Boscha would stop picking on her. She knew that gaining respect of Boscha wasn’t the right reason to help her out and play, but it was a potential benefit. It’s not like a better opportunity was going to arrive. She couldn’t pretend like that wasn’t part of the equation. Then there was Boscha’s raw attractiveness. Willow had long considered Boscha to be the most physically attractive student at Hexside, even if Boscha’s personality was a complete non-starter.  
  
But what was Boscha like? What was she really like? Who was the Boscha that stumbled on Willow’s house on a weekend run? Who was the Boscha that was nervous or unsure enough to run away? Who was the Boscha willing to sacrifice her pride to ask a person she considered second class to play grudgby with her? It was wrong that Boscha considered Willow beneath her, but Boscha didn’t consider Willow that much beneath her.  
  
Willow took her place in class and glimpsed Boscha’s face. Her favorite insult rang out in her mind.  
  
“Half-witch”.  
  
Though technically an invention of Amity’s, Boscha had made the taunt into her own. Boscha had called Willow half as good as everyone else for years. Willow sighed and gazed out the window, thinking about grudgby as the history teacher droned on. She’d already caught up on the readings, so it was all familiar information to her.  
  
Does who Boscha is on the inside really matter? Luz had befriended amity after some intense name-calling, but the duration of Amity’s bullying was much less than Boschas. Their histories were much less complicated. Less intertwined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have another chapter mostly written and i want to start updating this on Tuesdays and Thursdays until I'm done. i still have no clue how many chapters that'll be but i already have an epilogue planned. anyways. thank you so much for all the kudos and comments! constructive criticism is always welcome if you're so inclined! [if you read this chapter within the first like 5 hours i posted it i'm so sorry i didn't realize it was legitimately unreadable on mobile! hopefully it's fixed now!]


	5. Practice Day (afternoon)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willow's first day of practice. They hold hands in this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BAM! on thrusday just like i promised!

Willow didn’t realize how much she was going to appreciate Luz’s company on the way to the grudgby fields. Not that Willow didn’t always enjoy Luz’s company, but she especially appreciated the human on the trek to the school fields. Luz offered a great distraction from the upcoming practice, whatever that really entailed. A great distraction until she wasn’t.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to” Luz cut through the bright afternoon into Willow’s thoughts.

“I do want to do this,” Willow insisted ,

“Doesn’t look like you do.” Luz said.

“What does it look like?” Willow asked quizzically

“You look worried. And stressed.” Luz said.

“I do not” protested Willow ,

“Willow, you’re leaving a trail of red flowers that hurt to touch.” Luz said with concern.

Willow looked behind her. How did Luz know those flowers hurt? Luz hadn’t been on the plant track that long and she hadn’t grown up on the boiling isles learning its flora like Willow had. Luz definitely should not be touching those. “Darn” was all she had to say. Willow took a deep breath to calm down, willing the flowers back into seeds.

“I’m fine Luz. but yeah don’t touch those. And definitely don’t eat them.” Willow cautioned.

They were at the grudgby field, Willow walked as confidently as she could manage towards Boscha and Amity as Luz headed off to the stands.

Wait. Amity? Didn’t she have a broken leg? The pair of seasoned grudgby players seemed to be arguing, and as Willow got closer, she overheard part of the disagreement.

“Why didn’t you tell me your foot was broken!” Boscha yelled.

“My foot broke two weeks ago. And You broke it.” Amity said, throwing a finger at Boscha.

“What? That’s ridiculous. I would remember breaking your foot,” Boscha said, tossing her head to the side.

“Titan’s toes!” Amity cursed. That was the first time Willow had heard that. “You tackled me during the game you had with Willow? You seriously don’t remember?” Amity asked.

“So your broken foot is Willow’s fault? And you still wanted her on the team?” Boscha asked with surprise. Willow couldn’t tell if the surprise was genuine or not.

Wait, Amity had wanted Willow on the team? Was that the only reason Willow was on the team? Boscha didn’t seem like the person to just do what she was asked. Especially when it came to grudgby. Willow didn’t know why she was there, but she was sure that she was going to need to work hard to keep her spot. Hard work never scared Willow.

“Hello?” Willow attempted to interject. The two witches promptly ignored Willow.

“That’s not what I said. It’s not anybody’s fault, it’s just something that happened.” Amity tried to explain.

“But you didn’t think to tell me you could play when I asked you to come back?” Boscha yelled.

“I can play! I can just use abominations for everything.” Amity tried to explain again.

“Abominations are too slow to do anything useful!” Boscha complained

“Hi, Am I in the right place? Is this debate club or grudgby practice?” Willow asked sarcastically.

Nobody heard Willow again.

“They served me fine when I won my championships,” Amity boasted

“God, you’re worse than the half-witch,” Boscha said

Willow flinched, she really didn’t love that nickname.

Amity flinched. “Stop calling her that,” she said, looking around and finally seeing Willow.

“Willow!” Amity said

“Hi amity?” Willow said, a little confused. She was not used to enthusiastic greetings from the blights anymore.

“Titan help me, I’m outnumbered by idiots now,” Boscha said under her breath.

Willow bit back a comment about the use of the word Please, instead opting to address the broken elephant on the field. “Uhhh you’re playing amity?” Willow asked broaching the topic.

“Unless Boscha throws me off the team.” Amity said, rolling her eyes.

Willow gives a practiced smile. “I’m sure she won’t do that.” Willow said.

“Try me.” Boscha growled.

Willow giggled. “So, practice?” Willow said, hoping to guide everyone towards less conflict.

Boscha scowled. “Glad someone here wants to get to business, since someone decided to break their foot I have to redo some of our plays, something I’d have to do regardless since we’re going to be playing a team of five with only three players.”

“So why are you angry again?” Willow asked, she couldn’t help herself.

“I at least expect people on my team to be able to run a few miles,” Boscha eyed Willow. “Can you?”

Willow nodded.

“I’ll have you prove it later. Now we’re going to talk strategy.” Boscha said and motioned Willow to come closer.

“Since my mobility is limited and we’ll be playing with fewer players, we’ll play a zoned strategy instead of a player to player strategy.” Amity began.

“Shut it, Blight. This is my team I’ll call the shots.” Boscha snapped. “But yeah, you’re right. That’s what we must do.” Boscha looked at Willow again and sighed. “Zone strategy means we’ll have dedicated areas of the field we’ll be responsible for”

“No, I got it! Like what the Glandus Faes did to win the pro grudgby championships a couple years back,” Willow piped, nervously spouting trivia. 

“Errr Right.” Boscha said taken aback. “Well, I originally wanted you to play defensive zone Willow, but I guess that’ll be amity’s job now,” Boscha said with a scowl. “Are you left-handed?”

Willow shook her head.

“Fine on game day I’ll take left mid-zone, you’ll take right mid. We’re going to play primarily defense so you don’t embarrass me.” Boscha said.

Willow nodded eagerly, following the captain’s words closely. Though somehow Willow didn’t trust Boscha to play defensively.

Boscha sighed. “Alright we’re going to run half field scrimmages today I know what you can and can’t do.” Boscha said at Willow, putting emphasis on can’t. “Amity, you’ll play defensive zone for both of us. Just try to stop goals. Since you won’t have a team, you’ll be ref too.”

“Can do!” Amity said, taking initiative. “First rule: No tackling, so we injure anyone else” Amity said, summoning an abomination to hold her.

“Holy shit, that’s an annoying rule,” Boscha muttered.

Willow and Boscha lined up in the middle of the court. Boscha had the ball in hand and was staring down Willow with two eyes and one looking over her shoulder towards the goal.

“So no tackling?” Willow squeaked.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Boscha said, checking the ball and glancing down at her foot.

Willow relaxed her muscles and popped her shoulders and fingers. Her typical pre-workout routine.

“You ready for this Park?” Boscha said with a smile.

Willow nodded. Boscha knew her last name? Willow tossed the ball back.

“You sure you’re cut out for this?” Boscha prompted again.

Willow nodded again, just as surely as she did last time. “Every day of the week” Willow responded.

“We’ll see about that” Boscha said, a strange glint in her eyes.

Amity blew a whistle. A mischievously playful glint shone in Boscha’s eyes. Then she flung the ball high in the air, Boscha jumped up. Willow jumped after her, using a quick growing vine to help her gain altitude. Willow caught up to Boscha in time to see a smug grin, a beautiful grin, but one that a predator gives their prey seconds before dinner. Willow had only a second’s notice to get out of the way. Boscha turned around in the air, slamming her foot down on the grudgby ball, setting it ablaze. Willow had her vine give her horizontal momentum to dodge the ball. The ball whizzed past Willow and her vine and with a thud sunk a foot into the ground.

As willow fell to the ground, she summoned a flowery bush to cover her fall. Boscha landed on her feet, bending her legs and using her arms to push from the ground and quickly recover. As willow rolled to her feet, she caught the captain looking at her. The captain’s face remained motionless, but she extended her hand down as if she were play acting, helping Willow up. The two were too far apart for Boscha to actually help Willow up, so Willow got up by herself. And the two looked at eachother. Each trying to figure out what the other was going to do. Boscha cracked first, heading over to where the ball had lodged itself and digging it out of the dirt.

Someone was calling Willow’s name. How long had they been doing that? Willow turned around and faced the source. It was Amity, coming toward her as quickly as possible, being carried by her abomination like her professor. Willow saw out of the corner of her eye, Luz rushing down from the bleachers, no doubt coming to check on Willow. Willow sighed it wasn’t really that big of a deal.

“Sorry what?” Willow said, shaking her head.

“Are you okay?” Amity said, concern in her voice that Willow hadn’t heard from the blight in years.

“I’m fine just a tumble” Willow said shrugging for emphasis.

Amity began verifying Willow’s claim by checking her uniform for burn marks and her limbs for limited mobility. 

Then she turned to Boscha, completely abandoning her concern for Willow. “That was completely irresponsible! Are you trying to scare her off the team?” she yelled at the pink-haired witch.

Boscha blinked in astonishment. “Excuse me?” she said in disbelief.

“That was totally uncalled for!” Amity explained “and incredibly dangerous!”

By this point Luz had made her way to the argument. “Yeah!” Luz said, piling onto Boscha. “You can’t just throw fireballs at people! You could’ve killed her!”

That made Boscha chuckled. “That might’ve killed you, human, but they make us witches of stronger stuff. You should probably leave before you get hurt yourself,” She said pridefully.

“Oh c’mon!” Amity exclaimed “what were you even trying to accomplish, you could’ve injured her so badly she couldn’t play this weekend”

Willow took a step forward, wishing to end the argument. arguing like this wasn’t helpful to anybody though she was concerned by Amity and Luz’s concern for her safety.

Boscha shrugged. “I don’t want Witches weak enough to let themselves be harmed on my team anyway,” she said smugly

Amity looked at her own broken leg and fumed. Her face grew read, and it looked like she had to remember to breathe for a second. 

That second was when Willow made her move. She tapped Amity on the shoulder. “What’s the big deal?”

Amity turned toward willow “she lobbed a fireball at you?” Amity said not understanding willow’s question.

“I could’ve taken it,” Willow said ,

Amity looked at Willow in disbelief and said nothing.

Willow nodded as if that made sense. She turned to Boscha “and why is that a big deal to you?”

Boscha blew a strand of hair from her face and collected herself. “It’s not a big deal. But it’s my field. My rules,” Boscha said, daring Willow to contradict her.

Willow nodded. It all made sense now. “It seems like Amity might have a point about safety,” Willow said carefully, looking between the gathered witches to sense unexpected tension. “I think it would be beneficial for our chances on Friday if we didn’t lob fireballs at teammates. What do you think about that, Boscha?”

Boscha looked at willow, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “Tell the human to leave.” Boscha commanded.

Boscha nodded her head and faced Luz. “Luz, can you please-” she looked back at Boscha as she used the word please. “Go back to the stands?”

Luz hesitated. Willow knew she would. But Willow also knew Luz liked pleasing her friends. Luz liked trusting her friends, too. The human gave a smile and a wave and a rude gesture to Boscha and headed towards the bleachers.

Willow directed her attention to Boscha. “Fine” she conceded. “No fireballs at teammates.” she said, lighting a fireball and tossing it towards the goal. The ball went through the hoop perfectly.

“Thank you” Willow said.

Boscha looked at Willow. “What?”

“I said thank you” Willow repeated herself.

“Whatever” Boscha said deciding that whatever Willow had said, it wasn’t an insult “We’re going back to half court scrimmages” Boscha said glaring at her two teammates waiting for a challenge.

None came.

They lined back up, Amity carried by an abomination, Willow and Boscha lined up at half court.

There was no banter. There wasn’t any taunting. They just played ball.

It was an hour of intense physical, magical, and emotional exercise. Every clash of magic intense, every ‘two hand tackle’ met with bitter acceptance. Every point bitterly resented and held against Willow. It was taxing, grueling, and dirty athletic labor, spitefully partaken in.

“One last round” Boscha said. It’d been the first words addressed to willow in an hour. The first words out of Boscha’s mouth that wasn’t an ugly string of curses. They checked the ball. Willow gained possession and sprinted down the field. Usually she would just use her plant magic to transport her, but exercise had magically drained Willow to an extent she wasn’t used to. So instead she just relied on muscles to propel her down the field.

Boscha used her fire magic to propel herself through the air to catch Willow. With all of her might, she crashed against Willow, hoping to bring her down. Her arms came around the witch’s waist and her shoulder was against her thigh. It was a tackle that Boscha had done a thousand times on the Grudgby field.

Willow didn’t topple. She ran for a few more yards before slowing into a stop, dragging Boscha through the dirt as she did so. Willow stopped and offered a hand to help Boscha up. Boscha clasped the hand and lifted herself up in a matter so violent that Willow suspected Boscha was trying to pull Willow to the ground. 

The two girls stood close on the grudgby field, looking into eachother’s eyes. The setting sun cast a long shadow across the distance markers. Willow broke first in a staring contest She had no chance at defeating Boscha. Willow was outnumbered.

“I thought we said no tackling,” Willow said in a monotonous voice.

Boscha’s grip on Willow’s hand seemed to tighten, though a second before it seemed impossible.

“I forgot,” Boscha said.

“Clearly” Willow said ,

“It’s not like there were any tackles,” Boscha said with a smile.

Was that a joke? Was she supposed to laugh? She was too tired to do that just now. Willow opted for a kind smile instead. It was a practiced smile, inspired by the daisies. 

Boshca quickly released Willow’s hand and yanked it away as if she had just realized that the produce she was planning on eating had a large mold spot. Willow had almost forgotten that they were essentially holding hands, and the moment that Boscha was no longer touching her, Willow missed the moments of immense pressure on her hand.

Boscha dusted herself off. “Practice over.” she declared.

“What we’re not going to finish the point?” Willow asked. 

“If I can’t make a proper tackle, there’s no point in pushing myself any further,” Boscha replied. 

Boscha’s form for the tackle was perfect.

But before Willow could decide if she wanted to point that out, Boscha spoke up again. “Besides, you two idiots have homework to do” 

Willow followed Boscha to the goalpost. Amity joined them as she dispelled her abomination and picked up her crutches. Amity was holding a rather enormous book. Had she been reading that the whole time?

“Alright slackers. You both need to memorize every play in this book.” Boscha said, handing each girl a binder. “Preferably before tomorrow’s practice, but I’ll give you to Wednesday since I’m so nice,” Boscha said.

Willow had to bite her tongue as she took the binder. Amity didn’t bother with such niceties, openly scoffing at Boscha’s remark. She too took the binder and flipped through it. Willow did the same.

“I already know most of these plays, I wrote them,” Amity muttered. “Besides, it’s not like these are useful, we’re only playing three players, remember?”

Boscha snatched the binder back. “It’s not the execution that’s the point. It’s the idea behind each play,” Boscha said.

“Fine” Amity said, reaching for the binder. 

Boscha took a step back. “Nuh uh. Tell me what we call it when two runners switch lanes on the field while running the ball on offence,” Boscha challenged Amity.

Amity tinged red “it’s been years since-,”

Boscha clucked her tongue. “Excuses,” Boscha turned to Willow. “Look it up newbie and enlighten our former captain”

Willow smiled “it’s a helix when two runners do it, half helix when one runner does it and full helix when they switch lanes again,” Willow said casually flipping through the pages of the binder.

Boscha doubled over laughing. “New girl knows it better than you” she said in between fits of hysteria.

“Oh c’mon she has the book,” Amity protested.

“And you wrote half of it, remember?” Boscha said.

“Not that half,” Amity said.

“Amity, we used to do that play together!” Boscha said laughing again. “Alright, I’m done with this.” Boscha turned around and left towards the school. “I’ll draft up unique plays we’ll do Friday, but you still need to memorize this,” Boscha said, waving Amity’s binder around in the air as she walked away.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Willow said when Boscha was out of earshot.

Amity scowled. “She only did that because I teased her about her memory,” she mumbled

Willow said nothing to amity for a while. She just stood and watched Boscha leave. Willow wordlessly began walking towards the bleachers where Luz waited. Amity followed.

“Hey do you know all the plays?” Amity asked.

“Maybe? Boscha’s not quiet on the field, so I’m sure I’ve picked up on most of them.” Willow replied.

“Then can I borrow that binder that Boscha gave you? She didn’t give mine back.” Amity asked, embarrassed.

Willow handed Amity the binder in response.

“Did you enjoy practice?” Amity asked.

Willow thought about it for a little. “Yeah, it was new, so it was scary, but I had fun” Willow said.

“Look, I’m sorry about Boscha. She-” Amity began.

“Don’t worry about it. Boscha is Boscha. She’s bullied me for years. I don’t expect her to get better.” Willow said bitterly.

“I did.” Amity whispered.

Willow looked at Luz. ‘But not for me’ she thought.’

“It would be better if Boscha was better. But I’m not holding my breath. I can take a little heat.” Willow said.

“I’m sorry” Amity said with pain in her voice.

Willow really wished she hadn’t. It put her in an uncomfortable position. “It’s fine. Water under the bridge” Willow wasn’t one for grudges. But she didn’t exactly like soothing Amity. 

Amity giggled. “Human expression?”

Willow smiled. “Yeah, Luz has been teaching them to you too?” 

Amity nodded. “Yeah.” she said, her voice was much softer in pitch.

The pair met up with Luz at the bleachers.

“Did you come up with any new cheers?” Willow asked Luz as they approached.

Luz shook her head sadly. “All of them were just about hoping Boscha lost so I gave up and started working on my potions work”

“And you stuck around?” Willow asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t want you wondering Where I was or if I got lost or something,” Luz said like it was obvious.

Willow sighed wistfully. “Thanks Luz. I’m exhausted, so I’m just going to go straight home. Catch y’all some other time”

Willow waved goodbye left to her dads’ house. Best to leave those two lovebirds alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware Boscha isn't like... likable in this yet? it's called a character arc (hopefully) Next chapter will be short, chapter after that will be exciting, the next two chapters after that will be angst-y. then idk. why am i like this?
> 
> anyways thanks for reading! i'm sorry if that was a bit boring but hopefully it was fast paced enough to be entertaining.
> 
> thank you so much for kudos and comments! i really appreciate everyone! Constructive criticism is always welcome if you're so inclined!


	6. The next Practice Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willow gives Boscha some flowers. and if Cinemasins were reviewing the chapter they'd tell me to roll credits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BAM A chapter!

The next afternoon at practice Willow arrived first, hoping to prevent any more arguments between her teammates. Luz had to catch up on her oracle homework, so wasn’t able to watch practice like she had yesterday, which made Willow nervous. Within minutes of practice beginning, it was immediately clear Boscha was in a better mood or something.

“I need to know what exactly your plant magic can do,” Boscha said to Willow.

Willow nodded, expecting Boscha to just ask her to summon some big vines or large impressive trees. Both of which she could do but didn’t really showcase her magic properly. Willow hadn’t tailored her magical strengths to grudgby, and Boscha was going to tear into her magic regardless of outcome. Willow braced herself mentally for more “half-witches”

But those insults didn’t come that day. Boscha wasn’t very polite, but she never was.

“Create Marticaria Nobile and Purpuerea Angustifolia now” Boscha commanded, fishing a clipboard from her bag and taking out a quill. “And make them flower” She added.

Willow didn’t expect Boscha to be knowledgeable about plants at all. She didn’t expect Boscha to use the formal names of plants either. So when Boscha spoke, Willow had to collect herself to realize what exactly Boscha wanted.

Boscha raised an eyebrow. “Unless you can’t even do that?”

Willow shook her head. “I can do that fine,” Willow said, kneeling to the ground and growing the requested plants one with each hand. Once Willow completed the task a quick minute later, she stood back up. Boscha then squatted down and looked up at Willow skeptically. Boscha cupped the flowers in her hand and then with a sudden jerk plucked the flowers from the plants. Boscha then put the couple of flowers in her hair.

Willow flinched as the flowers were severed from the stems. Such violence against her babies was unconscionable. Immediately the young witch knelt down to tend to them. She sent them underground to her garden behind her dad’s house so she could tend to them later. Willow didn’t even notice the flowers in Boscha’s hair until much later.

“Do it again.” Boscha commanded. “Same two plants”

Willow did as she was told, unsure of what exactly Boscha was planning and fearing for the safety of her plant children. Boscha didn’t seem to be interested in any more herbicidal activities. Instead, opting for repetitive testing of Willow’s magic. She’d told Willow to summon enough flowering plants to crowd out some other plants in Willow’s garden.

Willow was going to have to ask her dads for more yard-space. She didn’t look forward to that conversation. No doubt they’d ask her to do more chores to get more yard space, which would cut down on her gardening and work-out time.

Eventually Boscha seemed satisfied. “So you can do that reliably then?” she mused aloud.

“No, that was just a fluke.” Willow retorted.

Boscha looked at Willow. “Was that sarcasm? You’ll fit in yet.”

Wait seriously? Was Boscha kidding? There wasn’t a hint of contempt in Boscha’s tone or face. It was possible Boscha was hiding her emotions, but Willow couldn’t remember a time when Boscha ever did that. 

Boscha was a bully. She’d been nothing but a bully for years. Willow shouldn’t care a dandelion’s petal what Boscha thought of Willow. She didn’t care what Boscha thought of Willow. She shouldn’t care what Boscha thought of Willow. But a smile plastered itself on Willow’s face. A smile that definitely should not be there. A compliment from her tormentor for years shouldn’t mean anything. It should mean negative things. But the feeling of elation and recognition that Willow felt was undeniable.

Willow was almost going to ask for confirmation she’d heard correctly, but Willow knew that would just end up in denial from Boscha so she didn’t bother.

“Alright, can you magically detect things in the ground using roots or something?” Boscha asked, reading notes from her clipboard.

Willow thought about it for a second, about how she might do it. “I could use a network of-”

“I don’t care how you do it,” Boscha interrupted.

“it might take a while,” Willow responded.

Boscha rolled her eyes. “How magic intensive is it?”

“I can just cast the spell and allow it to fester with no oversight. It’d be faster if I monitored it closely, but I can just cast the spell and leave it alone,” Willow answered, hoping she included all the relevant information. 

Boscha nodded. “That might do it, I guess. How long would it take?”

Willow sighed. “It depends on size of area I’m searching”

“Are you stupid?” Boscha asked.

“I don’t think so?” Willow responded

“What do you think you’re looking for?” Boscha asked.

“Ohhhhhhhhhh,” Willow said, understanding. “I guess it’d be about half an hour to cover the field but depending on how deep the smidge goes it could be longer”

Boscha nodded. “Fine” she said.

“We discussed field mobility yesterday,” Boscha muttered. 

“Last thing I need,” Boscha started. “You can make giant vines and trees” Boscha stated. It wasn’t really a question Boscha had seen it before.

Willow nodded.

“Great, we’ll need those for some plays on Friday,” Boscha said. “We’re going to run it a few times today for practice should be fun”

“So what is the play?” Willow asked. 

“Oh, I’m so glad you asked,” Boscha said with a wide grin. “I call it Forest-Fire, ”

Willow looked at the three eyed witch in abject horror as she described what her ‘play’ called for. It involved the burning of Willow’s precious plants to create obstacles and confusion for their opponents. In the confusion, Willow and Boscha could easily travel the field and score.

“Absolutely not.” Willow finally said with a dry mouth.

“And why exactly not?” Boscha said, her temper flaring behind her eyes.

“That would be cruel!” Willow Cried, not caring about whatever wrath Boscha could bring.

“It’s not against the rules, besides most witches know fireproofing spells,” Boscha said, casting her hand to the side

“Not cruel towards the opponents!” Willow had to exercise every bit of restraint. “Cruel towards the plants!”

Boscha looked surprised. “What on Belos’ Titan are you babbling on about”

“You can’t just burn plants alive! Especially not my plants!” Willow said. “I won’t let you do it”

“Woah, calm down there,” Boscha said, taking a step back. “It is not that serious. They’re just plants”

“Don’t say that! Imagine going to the beast keeping students, threatening to set fire to all of their beasts to win a stupid game!”

“Oh, okay, so you’re actually crazy,” Boscha said.

“Am not” Willow protested

“You’re freaking out over burning plants” Boscha repeated in a disbelieving monotone.

“It’s cruel!” Willow repeated.

“Okay, you better work out,” Boscha made a circle with her index finger “whatever that is, before Friday. Because I seriously cannot have a player who won’t do plays. That’s unacceptable,” Boscha said, deadly serious.

Willow sensed the malice that had been lacking from Boscha all day creep back into her voice and her face. Willow backed down, cowed.

Boscha was unconvinced. “Listen Leaf girl, I’m captain here. I’m in charge. You’re gonna learn these plays. If on game day you have a tactic based objection, maybe I’ll listen. But I’m here to win. Not coddle you or your plants.”

Willow looked toward Amity, her nose stuck in a book. 

Boscha had called her ‘Leaf Girl’ instead of half-witch. Had she caught on that Willow hated that nickname? Or was it just a coincidence? Boscha had also claimed to listen to Willow’s concerns on game day. That was a claim Willow was going to test. There was a zero percent chance that Willow was going to let that crazy arsonist hurt any of her plants.

“Fine” Willow said reluctantly. “What were the flowers for?” Willow asked innocently.

“Hmm?” Boscha took the flowers from her hair. “Oh, on field potions” She said.

Boscha made a circle in the air with her finger and summoned a sphere of water with her left hand. With her right hand, she set the two flowers ablaze and sprinkled the remains into the potions. Then she merged the flame and the water together, creating a bubbling green ooze. Boscha scanned the field before tossing the floating spherical potion towards amity’s abomination. The potion hit where the abomination’s collarbone would be if the abomination had bones and began spewing a fine green gas. 

“I designed a simple potion that should limit eyesight,” Boscha explained. “Since with your plants we’ll be traveling underground anyway, mostly.”

“Smart” Willow commented.

Boscha chuckled, and it was cute. There wasn’t anything sinister about it. Unlike Boscha’s chuckle’s in the past, there wasn’t anything snooty about it. The laugh was uncalculated and mild. Willow had caught Boscha off guard somehow.

The moment didn’t last long.

The chuckle and smile elongated into a sneer, and Boscha’s voice pitched up an octave. “Oh well, you know, Book Smarts aren’t everything” Boscha jeered toward the younger Blight.

Willow flinched. Her shoulders tensed, and she averted her eyes from Boscha. Willow wasn’t sure if Amity had heard the verbal jab or if Amity cared at all. Willow knew how these things worked. If Amity ignored it, Boscha would get in a sour mood and take it out on her. “Maybe be nicer?” Willow squeaked.

Boscha turned on her heel. Directing her attention towards Willow now, she sighed. “Whatever.” she said. 

Willow looked up to see Boscha inspecting her face, a curious studiousness in her eyes.

“Thanks” Willow peeped.

Boscha’s eyes narrowed. “It’s practice time. Go run laps or something and I’ll work out what to replace our Forest-Fire exercises with”

Willow nodded and began jogging around the field alone.

********************************************************************************************************

They’d ended up running different plays. Some adapted for three players, some two player maneuvers. It was another long, hard practice that Willow quite enjoyed despite spending it with her former bully and her soon to be former bully. The stress was immense, and she was glad to be home.

Willow sank into a warm bath and thought about Boscha’s attempt to hyp her and Amity up for the game tomorrow.

“If we’re out before halftime, we’re out of the playoffs. If we’re out of the play-offs, I’m officially dead. So if you lose my spot in the playoffs, I’ll make you wish you were only living in the human realm.” Boscha had said.

Willow had considered pointing out that Luz didn’t make the human realm seem so bad, but something told Willow that Boscha was serious about the game. Willow thought Boscha was a little harsh.

“That being said, you’re not giving up at half-time either. We’re going to win tomorrow’s game.” Boscha concluded before adjourning practice.

Willow sighed and sank into the water. Despite her rookie status, Willow was feeling strangely confident about tomorrow’s game. Her hours of practicing grudgby in and out of Willow had gotten Willow very comfortable with the rote mechanics of playing Grudgby. Willow was confident her Magic was enough to keep up and maybe surpass the other players. 

Willow’s greatest concern was for the safety of whatever plants she might need to summon tomorrow. Though her ironwood trees could easily block even the hardest hit grudgby balls Willow was scared that Boscha would try to light her precious plants on fire.

Willow promised she’d never let anything happen to her plants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So idk if i'm actually going to write the grudgby game. i don't know how interesting that would be and i think it might be interesting to just have the important bits referenced in flashbacks in future chapters. but if you really want a chapter that's just the grudgby game let me know. i'm more confident in writing that but i think it would be more interesting to jump into the character stuff. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! and thanks for all the kudos and comments on past chapters! As always constructive criticism is welcome if you'd like!


	7. Game Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willow and Boscha play their first grudgby match on the same team. also they hug one and a half times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the small hiatus, i've had two major tests and two major papers in the last week and a half and that hasn't left me a lot of freetime to write. also this chapter was sort of difficult for me. (don't ask why it doesn't seem that complicated)
> 
> so i said i wasn't going to write the game but then i looked at my outline and i had already outlined the game, and i can't write without an outline. so here's the boring chapter but i'm so hype for the next two chapters you guys don't even know.

It was only the second class of the day, but Willow couldn’t wait for the day to be over.

The caterpillars crawling around in Willow’s stomach wouldn’t metamorphosize. It didn’t help that she’d woken up late, missing her morning workout. It didn’t help that she’d forgotten her lunch at home. It didn’t help that people kept wishing her good luck. It didn’t help that she had Gen Ed classes with Boscha all day. It didn’t help that Boscha wouldn’t stop talking about it. It didn’t help that Boscha was acting like Willow was simultaneously her prodigy and a desperate rookie that she took a chance on. It didn’t help that Boscha was acting as if they already won the game.

Nothing was helping.

Boscha wasn’t helping.

Yeah, Boscha definitely wasn’t helping. 

Willow had somehow convinced herself that the game this afternoon was important. She convinced herself that she should work hard to improve her grudgby and improve her magic. Somehow she convinced herself to do extra chores so her dads would let her have extra garden space so she could put all the plants Boscha was making her grow.

The logical half of Willow’s brain was screaming. She shouldn’t be this stressed about a game. She shouldn’t be this stressed about performing well. She shouldn’t be this worried about the outcome of the game.

Willow wasn’t even nervous about getting injured. She was far more focused on winning, or at least making it to the second half. Willow should want the opposite. She should want to lose. That way she could stop spending her afternoons arguing with Boscha without coming off like a selfish meanie. That way her life could go back to normal. Normal looked like morning workouts, School, then afternoons in the gardens. Dinner with her family and then to sleep so she could wake up early and work out again.

Willow’s muscles flexed involuntarily. She was already missing her early morning stress relief tactic. She’d hoped that it would take longer for the consequences of skipping a workout to manifest.

What on earth was wrong with Willow? If you had told her 5 months ago that in 5 months she’d spend a week playing grudgby with Boscha and Amity she’d have…. Well, she didn’t know what she’d think, but it was difficult to remember some days that nobody besides Augustus was talking to her 5 months ago.

A week of practices was all it took for Willow and Boscha to be on friendlier terms, At least during the school day. There hadn’t been a single day of practice without an argument or semi-violent confrontation. It was perhaps the strangest thing about Boscha. She was always angry or on the verge of anger. Willow never understood why, at first Willow thought her presence on the field angered Boscha but now she didn’t think that was the case. Occasionally Boscha would be furious after botching a play and she’d look at Willow and her anger would subside slightly.

Willow couldn’t understand why. It’s not like Willow was going to spread rumors or something. It wasn’t like Willow hadn’t seen Boscha at her worst already. It wasn’t like Boscha had anything to gain from showing the slightest modicum of restraint. Willow was grateful for Boscha’s restraint.

Grateful wasn’t exactly right. It was closer to comfortable. As far as willow could tell, Boscha had never bothered hiding her emotions, not like Amity had. But Boscha had stopped throwing insults around. Well, throwing insults at people. Because of Willow’s rather persistent pestering Boscha was now insulting abstract concepts and animals instead of people and aspects of their immediate surroundings.

Willow yawned and turned to her side to whisper something to Luz about doing something over the weekend just to take her mind off of grudgby.

Unfortunately, instead of the human, the sight of Boscha greeted her. While typically a welcome sight, Boscha was best observed like a fungus which emitted poisonous spores. carefully and from afar.

Before class Boscha had asked the teacher to move her and Luz’s seats so she and Willow could talk grudgby plays. The teacher had obliged without a second thought. It was very annoying that Boscha didn’t even think to ask Willow about the seat change.   
Boscha was too close. Too close for Willow to drown out the grudgby talk. too close to pretend that she wasn’t very interested in Boscha. too close to pretend that Willow couldn’t smell Boscha’s unique fragrance. just entirely too close for Willow to function properly.  
Willow had never realized it before but Boscha doesn’t talk about anything except grudgby. To be fair, Willow spent more time looking at Boscha’s lips than bothering to listen to the things coming out of them. Since This time the thing coming out of Boscha’s mouth often directly concerned Willow, the words were much more difficult to ignore.

Willow couldn’t believe the amount of ways Boscha could say the same thing. She also couldn’t believe the amount of ways that Boscha expected a play could break down. She also couldn’t believe that Boscha expected Willow to pay attention. They were in class. With other people. The teacher was lecturing. People were trying to learn.

Boscha seemed oblivious to this and continued to prattle on about the differences in response to an approaching player based 

It’s not like Boscha could talk about grudgby all day.

Boscha hadn’t stopped talking about grudgby all day. Boscha hadn’t stopped talking about grudgby to Willow all day. Boscha only granted Willow a brief respite from the constant dribble of grudgby related words during lunch. Boscha’s intensity had given Willow a headache so strong she wasn’t sure she could play in the game that evening.

It was an hour before the match started and Boscha somehow was still doing last-minute prep with Willow and Amity. The three Banshees were sitting on the sideline as Boscha reminded them of common placement of traps and how to avoid them effectively. As Boscha continued to speak Willow felt more and more ill. 

The whistle blew, and Willow felt better. Boscha lept up into the air and gained possession of the ball. Rather than running it up the field herself Boscha passed Willow the ball. Willow enveloped her body in vines and went underground, a play she’d made up on the fly in her first grudgby match had turned into a skill that she’d developed over the past week. 

Willow had something to do, and that was comforting. 

Willow willed her plants to go through the field carrying her and the grudgby ball. The week of practice had given her a decent sense for the dimensions of the field so when she emerged she was just a few feet next to the goal post. When she started grudgby practice, she’d had a habit of squinting her eyes when shooting the ball. She knew better now. Her eyes were wide scanning for the keeper. The keeper didn’t seem to notice her yet. Willow had her shot. Willow held the ball to her chest and then with as much force as she could muster jerked her hands out in front of her. The ball accurately sailed into the goal. Willow had scored the first point of the match.

Willow made eye contact with the opposing team’s keeper.

“Sorry” was all she had to say.

The keeper laughed.

Willow jogged to the middle of the field, a smile plastered on her face. Boscha returned the smile with a genuinely elated expression, her three eyes filled with joy and pride. 

“Play defensive and set up your smidge finding spell,” Boscha commanded. Willow nodded.

The Banshees were in a clear lead throughout most of the first half. Because of their numbers disadvantage they couldn’t exactly dominate. Three players didn’t cover enough field to be an effective team. Even with perfect play it wasn’t likely that the Banshees could’ve run the score up on their opponents.

But they were playing better than expected, considering one of them was a complete rookie and one was a long retired crippled captain, their performance was above average.

********************************************************************************************************  
They were up by a point at halftime. A whole point!

A whole Point.

Willow came to the sideline relieved. Boscha could go to play-offs, and Willow hadn’t horribly failed. Now they could relax, maybe if Boscha was in a good mood they’d even concede and Willow could spend the rest of her evening spending quality time with her plants in her garden.

Boscha had other ideas. The Hexside captain was going to use the halftime break to maximum efficiency.

“I thought you said you’d be able to find it in thirty minutes,” Boscha immediately snapped..

“I’m trying! I’ve been using my magic on other things!” Willow replied.

“Yeah right” Boscha said

“I’ve been transporting myself all around the field! It’s faster and easier than running,” Willow explained.

Boscha was still catching her breath, she did not have the luxury of a magic plant transport system to travel around the field. “Fine whatever. We’re opening this half with Forest-Fire”

“Absolutely not.” Willow countered. She’d prepared for this over the week. “Forest-Fire is too intensive, there’s no reason to squander all that magic and stamina now”

Boscha smugly smirked. “Then what do you suggest Leaf girl? We’ve still got to project dominance.”

“Aren’t we done? You made it to playoffs! You said after half-time we’d officially be fully qualified,” Willow protested.

Boscha gasped as if Willow had said something horribly offensive. “I always play to win.” Boscha said, with a fierce look that made Willow eager to please. “And we’re up a point. We need to start the half strong”

Willow sighed, accepting Boscha’s premise. Willow had agreed to play the entire game. Willow hadn’t considered that Boscha was going for Forest-fire for a legitimate reason. Though Willow was skeptical of how legitimate a reason ‘projecting dominance’ was. Willow quickly spelunked the depths of her mind for an idea.

“We could do the thorn vault?” Willow suggested.

Amity spit out her Bile-Ade.

“Seriously?” Amity said

Boscha ignored Amity. “That’s just a fancy finale play” Boscha said waving her hands

“And Forest-Fire isn’t?” Willow challenged.

“Forest-Fire puts us in a better position optically! we’d gain an advantage, and we’d be up two points which means we could more safely play defense!!”

Willow fumed. Thorn-Vault was a humane alternative to arson. Thorn vault was a play that everyone had familiarity with and had all the same advantages as Forest-Fire. Besides Forest-Fire was too risky, that it was unpracticed and unproven! but words failed Willow. There was no way she was doing it. Not a chance.

“You’re so cruel for wanting to do Forest-Fire!” Willow yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. She felt tears on the verge of breaking. “We’re not doing it! No way!”

She’d had a crummy day, and she would not make it worse by watching her precious babies burn.

Boscha scowled. A blurry expression that Willow only recognized because she’d seen it so many times before.

“Be nice to me Leaf girl,” Boscha demanded.

Willow blinked twice, clearing her head. “What?”

“You’re being mean. You called me cruel. I don’t enjoy arguing”

Willow blinked again and tilted her head. “What?” She repeated. On what planet does Boscha not like arguing?

“Just say puh-leese.” Boscha said not making eye contact with Willow. If Willow was seeing clearly she might’ve noticed a repressed smirk on Boscha’s face.

“Oh.” Willow said and her heart sank. “Sorry Boscha” Willow apologized in a soft voice. “I didn’t realize-”

Willow drew in a shaky breath.

“Okay Boscha, can we please not do Forest-Fire?”

Boscha waved her hand in the air “hmmmmmm okay fine whatever. Nerd. I won’t set fire to your dumbass plants.”

Boscha smirked.

Was she teasing Willow in a new friendly way? Or the old bully way?

Willow chuckled nervously. “Maybe you could be nicer too?”

“Maybe. But if we’re not doing Forest-Fire, we have to do something.” Boscha said.

She changed the subject.

Willow’s mind raced.

“I have a more defensive play that we can try,” Willow said and glanced at Amity. 

“Go on”

“Well, as long as amity can save a shot, recover a ball then throw a fireball,” Willow rambled.

“Just spit it out.” Boscha prodded.

Willow took a breath. “Okay, I can set up a plant chute that can make it so that Amity just needs to drop the ball into the chute while tossing a fireball toward you,” Willow pointed at Boscha. “As a diversion. Then the ball and I can travel down the chute and we score”

Boscha didn’t like the plan. And she said as much. “That sounds complicated. And we didn’t practice anything like that”

“Well, you said-”

“I know what I said. Did you just come up with that?” Boscha asked.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while”

“You should’ve said something while we could’ve practiced it”

“You didn’t ask” Willow retorted.

Boscha scowled. “We can try that if Amity recovers the ball, but we’re not playing defensively just for that”

Willow nodded in understanding. 

Boscha rested her head on her hand for a moment before snapping back to the present. “Alright if we start with the ball, then we’ll do thorn vault, If we have to play defense we can try out your play…. Trash Chute?” Boscha suggested with a smirk.

Willow smiled back. They were going to do the plays she suggested!

Wait did she just call her play trash?

“Maybe you could be nicer too. Like maybe Don’t name my plays trash.” Willow retorted.

The buzzer sounded, and halftime ended.

********************************************************************************************************  
They had done it. They won. It was only a few minutes into the second half and after a botched offensive play by Willow and Boscha, Willow’s magic detection root network had found the smidge. Willow thought it a little odd that Boscha had demanded to know the location of the smidge so she could get it herself but Willow obliged the captain. 

It wouldn’t do well for Boscha’s reputation to have a rookie find the smidge before her. Boscha would enjoy the attention and the spotlight too. Willow didn’t mind that at all.

After telling Boscha where the smidge lay Willow helped amity with defending an offensive push from the opponents. Boscha had casually and discreetly walked to the corner of the field and knelt down to pick up the smidge. It was graceful, covered in sweat and dirt though she was.

Boscha stood up and put her fingers to her mouth and whistled so loud that all the players and the referee stopped, turned around and faced her.

Boscha had a big grin on her face. “Game over!” she said with an infectious smile and held up the smidge with two fingers. 

Willow returned the smile even though Boscha had smiled at the crowd and not at her.

Her first win playing grudgby, and she’d definitely earned her keep. 

Boscha tossed the smidge to the ref and ran over to Willow, the smile still on her face.

Boscha gave Willow a strong side hug, and Willow froze. Part of her wanted to recoil. Part of her wanted to turn into the embrace and give Bosca a full hug back. Part of Willow wanted to respond, part of Willow wanted to avoid making a fool of herself at all costs. Willow was often awkward, but not usually frozen in this way.

Boscha said something, and the sound brought Willow out of her small space out-episode. Deeply embarrassed that she hadn’t been paying attention Willow asked “What?”

Boscha broke the side hug and began making her way to the side bench with Willow.

“Fine we did it, We made it to the play-offs,” Boscha said

That made it easy for willow to figure out what Boscha was talking about.

“Didn’t we do that at halftime?” Willow asked.

“Huh. yeah I guess we did.” Boscha said and turned with a smile. “But it’s nice to win you know?” she asked.

Boscha began packing her sports gear into her duffel bag. Willow sat down on the bench and nodded. “Nice to win” Willow agreed.

“Shame we didn’t try out that defensive chute play,” Boscha said “we’ll have to try that in practice next week, I think that play has potential”

Willow’s ears perked up. “You do?” Willow asked.

“For sure” Boscha said. The triclops turned to look at Willow intently. “I really can’t wait to develop more plays with you” 

Willow couldn’t help it. She really couldn’t. Boscha just looked so huggable. Part of it was Willow felt bad not returning the hug Boscha had given earlier. Part of it was the excitement Willow felt to play more grudgby. It was also the slight flexing of Boscha’s muscles as she rummaged around her sports bag. How Boscha’s eyebrows softened her eyes when she spoke about developing plays.

Without thinking, she gave Boscha a hug. A full on hug. Arms around the back, face next to face, and torso close to torso.

Was Boscha hugging Willow back? Willow was too busy trying to figure an elegant way out of the situation to tell. Willow couldn’t determine anything about Boscha’s reaction. 

It was Willow’s decision to break the hug. As quickly as she’d started it Willow let good and stepped back from Boscha. It was hard to do, and as Willow missed the external warmth coming from Boscha, she felt internal warmth bubble up. The warmth in her cheeks seemed to dry out the mud on her face caking it on her face which was probably not cute.

“Sorry-” Willow said with her best awkward ‘I-can’t-believe-I-just-did-that,’ smile. “I was just so happy we won the game,” Willow tried for a lie. Lying definitely wasn’t her strong suit but she couldn’t exactly say “I think you’re hot, saw a chance to hug you and having no self-control did exactly that”

Willow held her breath awaiting Boscha’s response. Boscha blinked her astonishing purple-gray eyes in shock, as if processing new information. “Right- I suppose it’s only natural. Winning your first game would be a big rush” a grin spread over Boscha’s face. Boscha coughed as if she had just remembered something. “But don’t do that again. That was weird”

And then Boscha heel-turned and walked away from the side bench. 

Willow’s heart dropped. ‘That was weird’.

Boscha wasn’t wrong, it was weird to hug an acquaintance out of nowhere, especially after having half-hugged them so soon. She hadn’t asked or anything. Willow buried her head in her hands. She needed a friend to talk things out with. Gus was fine, but he was still young, Willow doubted that he could give the girl-talk sort of advice Willow desperately needed.

Not for the first time in the months since Luz had made her way onto the boiling isles, Willow thanked her lucky stars that she’d accidentally attacked the human that one day before school. Luz was skeptical of Boscha and would surely set her straight.

Or well not straight, definitely not straight. But maybe less masochistic.

Maybe somehow Willow could get Luz to get Willow to improve her taste in potential romantic partners.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a note about the quality of this chapter this took me so long and i'm very unsatisfied with this chapter but i'm more excited to move forward than to dwell on this chapter for another week or something.
> 
> Thanks for reading! and thanks for all the kudos and comments on past chapters! As always constructive criticism is welcome if you'd like! so the next two chapters don't matter in terms of order. should i do the willow and Luz chapter next? or the Boscha and Amity chapter?


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